


i wish to keep you safe, my love

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Romance, Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-11 20:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19933678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Waking up to someone makes it easier.





	i wish to keep you safe, my love

**Author's Note:**

> i miss them

Takumi wakes in the middle of the night from the turbulence of his own dreams. Before him, the tent wall. Behind him, pressed against his back, Leo. Takumi wonders how he managed to sleep with the weight of Leo’s arm draped over his ribcage; it's scrawny—relatively—but at just the place where he makes it that much harder to breathe. Takumi takes a deep breath. He has almost forgotten the nightmare—the claws that tore at his clothes and raked blood over his skin, the distorted faces of the dead reanimated. He almost forgot, but he thought about it, so it stays, unwelcome company in the dark to which his eyes are well-adjusted. He debates rolling over.

It is warm. He can feel every rise and fall of Leo’s chest as he sleeps. His exhales tickle the back of Takumi’s neck slightly and with every breath that Takumi takes the arm over his ribcage contacts him differently and he thinks he cannot fall back to sleep like this but he does not move. Leo is sleeping so soundly. He snores, softly. 

Takumi closes his eyes and they return. Decayed flesh tears open with a putrid smack and lidless eyes roll backward into their pus-coated sockets, a dragon built of bitter souls pierces a red-black sky with its screech and when he tries to scream he chokes instead because this is a dream and _nobody is here to help you no one can save you they are all dead_ —

He is staring at the wall again, chest tight, breaths rapid. He presses his palms to his eyes. _I’m so_ fucking _tired of this_ , he thinks.

A shuffle behind him. The dull clap of a lazy hand landing against his ear. Leo threads his fingers through Takumi’s hair and runs them down just as far as the wrist bends, repeats. Presses a kiss at the nape of his neck. Then he retreats some, but places his hand back where it was on his ribs, and Takumi finally decides he is not comfortable like this.

He pulls Leo’s arm away, pushes it past his body as he makes to turn. Leo complies, pliant in his half-sleep, turning his back to him. Takumi slides an arm under his, a leg between his; places a hand flat against his chest and holds him close to his body. Leo runs his palm down the length of Takumi’s forearm, searching idly for his hand, meeting his fingers by lacing them between his own. Takumi feels Leo grow smaller as he releases a sigh.

Takumi remembers the fear, but forgot the dream. A god? A crow? He knows the identity of the characters but their faces are becoming vague.

The silhouettes in the tent bear a starker contrast; it is nearing dawn. Leo loosens his grip on Takumi’s hand, already falling fast asleep. Takumi breathes him in and slowly out, letting his eyelids fall heavy as his heart matches pace with Leo’s. He wants to try one more time.


End file.
